Before joining the speakers at the 2016 Connected Health Summit in San Diego, Karthik Ranjan, Director Healthcare Technology at ARM, shared his insight on several trends in the connected health market:

What’s new in 2016 that keeps you upbeat/optimistic about the connected health market?

The connected health ecosystem is growing and vibrant, and this presents exciting opportunities to provide better patient care at lower cost, enable personalized medicine and transform patient behavior. Apple’s native support of HL7 on the phone really changes the game, solidifying mobile devices as the platform of choice for patient engagement. Combined with recent 2016 data from Pew Research which showed smartphone penetration increasing in the 65+ demographic to 27% , and a high year-on-year CAGR, this reinforces that the smartphone is becoming the gateway for delivering healthcare services to all age groups. As such, the gateway costs can be eliminated from the cost of deployment of new mHealth solutions.

What’s the most effective strategy/approach you have seen that engages consumers for health and wellness behavioral changes?

Emerging remote monitoring technologies, has the potential to transform patient care, making it proactive rather than reactive. Using the patient’s existing mobile devices, providers need to offer a rich, interactive app which tracks all of the patient’s various vitals in one place, and offers them opportune notifications at the right time, on the right device (e.g. tablet, smartphone, watch, or browser). Integration with social networks is key to involve the patient’s broader circle of trusted friends and family.

What do you anticipate to happen in 2017/18 that would have the biggest impact on the connected health market?

Increased More market data from trials will show the increased efficacy of remote care and patient monitoring solutions, thereby encouraging the adoption of new technologies that enable this monitoring securely and efficiently. We’ll also see improvements in the ability for providers to easily get reimbursed for value-based pricing services.

Karthik will speak on the panel session "Sensors and IoT Technologies for Connected Care" on September 1, 2016. Other speakers on the panel include Multi-Tech Systems and Sigma Designs/Z-Wave.

For more information about how your company can become involved in the 2017 Connected Health Summit, visit www.connectedhealthsummit.com.